The Africa Cup held in Cameroon is in its round of 16 and it’s making people talk. Not only because of what is at stake, but also because of its curiosities. To the incredible match between the locals and Comoros on Monday, where the islanders were close to giving the hit despite having an expelled early and half a team out due to coronavirus, including all their goalkeepers, so a player from field -number patched with tape in between-, this Tuesday was added a crossing between Senegal and Cape Verde full of controversies.
As (almost) could not be otherwise, Senegal took the win displaying his power against the dreamy Cape Verdeans and, mainly, the scoring ability of Sadio Mané, one of the figures of English Liverpool.
The attacker scored the goal from 1 to 0 at 63 minutes after taking a post corner rebound inside the area and placing the ball in the upper left corner of the goalkeeper like a true crack. But after celebrating and positioning himself for the center kick, Mané grabbed his head, commented something to a teammate and lay down on the floor: he would be replaced in a minute. Is that just a few minutes earlier, the Liverpool man scared strangers himself when he collided heads with the rival goalkeeper, and went face-first to the ground without being able to get up. That is to say, the striker scored the goal in a state of shock.
Mané was assisted by doctors like the veteran Vozinha (Cypriot Limassol goalkeeper), who did manage to get up after the clash, of course by pure wobble so he was stopped by his companions and forced to sit down. Still groggy, the one did not want anything to do with being replaced and, as he could, he complained inside the field while couldn’t stay balanced.
To add insult to injury, Vozinha was expelled after the referee resorted to VAR to observe the play, in which Mané headed the goalkeeper ahead by a few hundredths when they went to dispute a ball outside the area. Thus, the DT of Cape Verde chose to enter the substitute goalkeeper, Marcio Rosa (from Montalegre of the Third Division of Portugal) for perhaps his best-known player, the attacker Garry Rodríguez (Olympiakos of Greece).
It is worth remembering that Cape Verde already had one less player since 21 minutes when, again through the VAR, the referee decided to expel midfielder Patrick Andrade (Qarabag of Azerbaijan) for a flat iron.
The final result was 2 to 0after striker Ahmadou Bamba Dieng (French Olympique de Marseille) scored a counterattack against a rival launched in attack with two players less.
Senegal now waits in the quarterfinals for the winner of the cross between Mali and Equatorial Guinea, this Wednesday from 4:00 p.m. On the other side of this key, the match is already defined: Burkina Faso vs. Tunisia.
On the other side, Cameroon, who controversially beat the diminished Camoras 2-1, will go against Gambia, who eliminated Guinea. The other clash of quarters will come from Morocco-Malawi (this Tuesday at 4:00 p.m.) and Ivory Coast-Egypt (Wednesday at 1:00 p.m.).
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